Retirement Conversations: What Do You Do?

We spend a lifetime working, building a career, raising a family, etc. Then we retire, and some unsuspecting acquaintance asks, “What do you do?” It’s a whole new ballgame now.

This can be a difficult question for new retirees. Our gut instinct is to identify ourselves by our occupations — “I’m a lawyer,” I’m an office manager,” “a teacher” or a “stay-at-home mom.” When you spend that much time in one role, it becomes a part of who you are. But is that still who you are once you retire? Some people might say, “I used to be a lawyer.” After a while, they may get used to simply saying, “I’m retired.” Yet this process of figuring out how to respond may be directly correlated to how long it takes to figure out who we are in retirement.¹

Some people spend years dreaming about what they’ll do when they retire, so they might answer, “I’m now an amateur golfer.” Or gardener. Or grandchild-babysitter. It’s worth taking some time to build a retirement identity for yourself; not just to answer that question, but to establish your own purpose for getting up in the morning. One of the keys to the retirement you desire is aligning your lifestyle goals with your retirement income. Please feel free to contact us to discuss creating retirement strategies through the use of insurance products that can help you work toward your long-term retirement income goals.

A recent study conducted by Humana found that the more optimistic people are by nature, the younger they feel. In fact, the most optimistic retirees also rated high in areas of good health, getting enough sleep, feeling confident and overall happiness. The study concluded that working on a more positive attitude is important to retirees’ overall health and well-being.²

But what if you aren’t naturally optimistic? One tip for achieving optimism is to practice. Work on identifying negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones. The general idea is to “fake it until you make it.”³

Researchers at Stanford University analyzed a longevity study of 60,000 diverse U.S. adults between 1990 and 2011 in areas such as demographics, medical history, physical exam and physical activity data. One of the more interesting findings was that people who perceived themselves as “a lot less active” than peers had a higher risk of death — regardless of how much they exercised or other health risk factors such as smoking or obesity. Apparently, it’s not just our health that matters, but also how we feel about ourselves.⁴

If we believe we are less active than everyone else — and are stressed and depressed about that — it can negatively impact our health. This is an important issue for physicians to consider, because warning about dangerous behaviors such as smoking, inactivity or overeating apparently can actually worsen the problem.⁵

Perhaps one way to foster optimism is to create a plan for how to spend your days. For example, start a new venture. It doesn’t matter if it’s for profit or not; the main incentive is to provide a purpose. Maybe follow up on a good idea that no one in your area is doing or find a need you can fulfill. When people retire, they often find they have time to do things that they never got to do before, and they also may have time to do things that need to get done — that no one else has time to do.

For the first time in history, there are about to be more people over age 65 than under age five.⁶ Furthermore, we have a shortage of care providers. Of course, not everyone will need a full-time caregiver; some may just need a little help — perhaps with remembering to turn off appliances or going to doctor appointments. Companies are currently looking at artificial intelligence for more ways — more gadgetry — to help address these issues and allow people to age longer at home.⁷

But for now, small, kind and oh-so-helpful gestures may be all some people need. Life is full of these types of opportunities — ways to feel good, help others and get the exercise we need without going to a gym. Here’s one idea: Some elderly people have a hard time getting their trash can to the curb for pickup, so perhaps that’s a volunteer job that provides purpose and exercise for a younger retiree while helping others.

Look around. See how you can contribute. And the next time someone asks you what you do, create yourself a brand-new identity title.

Content prepared by Kara Stefan Communications.

¹ Joe Casey. Booming Encore. “Answering in Retirement: So, What Do You Do?” http://www.boomingencore.com/retirement-what-do-you-do. Accessed Nov. 13, 2017.

² Humana. Oct. 4, 2017. “Survey: Sense of Optimism Linked to the Perceived Mental and Physical Health of Seniors.” http://press.humana.com/press-release/current-releases/survey-sense-optimism-linked-perceived-mental-and-physical-health-sen. Accessed Dec. 5, 2017.

³ Susan Williams. Booming Encore. “The Relationship Between Optimism, Health and Aging.” http://www.boomingencore.com/relationship-optimism-health-aging/. Accessed Nov. 13, 2017.

⁴ Monique Tello. Harvard Health Publishing. Aug. 14, 2017. “Mind over matter? How fit you think you are versus actual fitness.” https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/mind-over-matter-how-fit-you-think-you-are-versus-actual-fitness-2017081412282. Accessed Nov. 13, 2017.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Elena Holodny. Business Insider. May 16, 2016. “We’re about to see a mind-blowing demographic shift unprecedented in human history.” http://www.businessinsider.com/demographics-shift-first-time-in-human-history-2016-5. Accessed Dec. 5, 2017.

⁷ Ian C. Schafer. Software Development Times. Nov. 7, 2017. “IBM expands AI research to support an aging population.” https://sdtimes.com/ibm-expands-ai-research-support-aging-population/. Accessed Nov. 13, 2017.

We are an independent firm helping individuals create retirement strategies using a variety of insurance products to custom suit their needs and objectives. This material is intended to provide general information to help you understand basic retirement income strategies and should not be construed as financial advice.

The information contained in this material is believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed; it is not intended to be used as the sole basis for financial decisions. If you are unable to access any of the news articles and sources through the links provided in this text, please contact us to request a copy of the desired reference.

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